Zero's Guide to Riichi/Reach Mahjong ~rules, points, and general discussion~

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So... I'm gonna go ahead and equate these yaku to names that i recognize.

Originally Posted by Saradin

The page is kind of faded, sadly. Plus I don't have a scanner. So I'm giving it my best shot. And I don't know the names, and I'm not going to try to guess them, so you'll get my bad translation of them/description. (There were a ton of kanji that looked like they're outdated, so I just kinda, matched them as best as I could with a list of yaku.)

1) Tsumo->tsumo
2) No-point hand->probably pinfu or chicken hand. i've seen pinfu labeled as "no other yaku", but i've also seen chicken hand given points, even if its formation is a mess
3) No terminal/wind/dragon->tanyao
4) All the same suit + wind/dragons->honitsu
5) All koutsu->toitoi
6) All koutsu and all terminal/winds/dragons->honroutou
7) 3 hidden koutsu->sanankou
8) 2 koutsu of dragons, the pair is dragon->shousangen
9) Everything has a terminal/wind/dragon in it->chanta
10) 3 kan->lol yeah, sankantsu
11) 123456789 of one suit->itsuu
12) Victory from the tile drawn when you declare a kan.->rinshan
13) When someone places a tile down from a previously declared pon to form a kan, and you instead take that tile to win.->chankan
14) Victory from the last tile drawn from the wall before a stalemate->haitei
15) Victory from the last tile discarded before a stalemate->houtei
16) Riichi->riichi
17) "Other" (1-17 are all labeled as 1 han)->huh?

Yakuman:
1) Dealer starts with winning hand->tenhou
2) Other players wins with first draw->chiihou
3) Koutsu of all 3 dragons->daisangen
4) Koutsu of all 4 winds->suushihou
5) All koutsu, all terminals (including pair)->chinroutou
6) All wind/dragon->tsuuiisou
7) 4 concealed koutsu->suuankou
8) One of every terminal/dragon/wind, and the last one matches any of the others.->kokushi musou
9) 1112345678999 + any other tile of that suit, all the same suit->chuurenpoutou
10) "Other"->huh?

hmmm, this leaves out most of the shuntsu yaku of the style i play. and since everything is 1 yaku, there aren't any han penalties for going open. that makes the game much more call oriented, with riichi being very rare. seems like less suspicions and mind games and more head butting action. higher pace seems natural too. seems like it'll be fun, but with less of an emphasis on keeping your hand closed, so you're less likely to over think and tire out from playing only a few hands. seems great for a little spin. thanks~

And... I just realized that I forgot one of the most common and important parts of the game--how it ends.

There are 2 outcomes to any hand: someone wins, or the game washes out in a draw.

Heavily implied in the previous posts, is someone winning. This means someone completes their hand, and points are awarded. Nice and peachy, this one.

Mentioned in passing but never given a real explanation is a drawn game. So here we go...

RyuukyokuRunning out of tiles: Of all of the 136 tiles, 52 are used for making players' hands, and the dead-wall is 14 tiles in total. That means the tiles available to draw during the game number 70. This number does not change. When 70 tiles are drawn and no one has legally declared victory, the game goes to draw. Depending on rules and hand states (tenpai/noten), dealership may or may not change, points may or may not be passed around, and honba count may increase (renchan stick thrown down to continue dealer status). Declaring kan, which allows a draw from the dead wall, does not change the 70 drawn tiles either. If a tile is drawn due to kan declaration, the last tile on the active wall is shifted to the dead wall. This also means that you aren't able to declare kan on the haitei tile. I should probably put a good chunk of this into the kan explanation as well, but that'll happen later.

Kyuushukyuhai: if your hand has 9 or more different terminals and honors, and you have no more than 2 meldable sets (making a chi or pon will give you a set), you can force the game to an abortive draw, tiles rewashed, and seat changed (depending on the rules). Note that this is only applicable DURING the FIRST go-around (no calls made), and can only be called after your first draw, but before a discard. The 9th terminal/honor is allowed to come from the first drawn tile. May not apply in some rules.

Suufontsu: if all players discard the same wind tile during the first turn (no calls made), the hand is treated as a draw with everyone in noten. May not apply in some rules.

Suukansanra: if 4 kans are declared, the game is a draw. The yakuman, suukantsu, is thus impossible if more than one player has declared kan. The game is not declared a draw until a tile has been discarded after the 4th kan, making suukantsu possible only on the rinshan.

Yoninriichi: simply, if all four players have declared riichi, the match is stupid sudden death with no semblance of the desired metagame--so the hand is aborted.

Triple Ron: even simpler, if three players declare ron on the same tile, the game is aborted. may not apply in some rules.

Yeah, the general idea of hand formation is related to concepts that poker and rummy both use, but the scoring system is different. I just like saying it's similar to poker or rummy because they're both relatively easy conceptually, and all of the difficulties arise from player-borne metagame. Mahjong is the same thing. It's just a matter of learning the basic ideas of hand formation, then what formations lead to wins. Everything after that is player-player interaction, and metagame variations depending on rules for very obscure happenstance (which can mostly be ignored, since they rarely happen).

After some discussion and some interest enough for new players, this thread being sticky'd in order to help set up online matches seems like a good idea. It's easier to see when people are available if the thread doesn't keep getting thrown into the far recesses of the wash.

And hopefully, this will also spark some interest in the even newer members who have never seen this thread before.